2021 Women in Engineering
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Sarah Walter Applications Engineer
Encoder Products Company M.S. Electrical Engineering – University of Colorado, Boulder B.S. Electrical Engineering – University of Portland
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What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer? I grew up in rural Idaho and I was recruited to the University of Portland for a golf scholarship. Growing up, I’d always been a tinkerer; I loved to take things apart, figure out how they worked, and fix them. When I was choosing my major, it was between art and engineering, but I wanted to pursue a stable career, so I chose engineering. I enjoyed my undergrad experience so much, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in a more specialized area of electrical engineering. Also, since I graduated at a time when there was an economic dip, I knew I wasn’t going to miss out on any professional opportunities. I was accepted to several graduate programs, but I chose the University of Colorado, Boulder, where I pursued a degree in a combined program with electrical engineering and physics. I learned the fundamentals of optics and lasers, and how to build table-top optical test environments, with my work done in single wavelength applications. Many of my fellow students were working on their PhDs, but I was pursuing a shorter track to achieve a master’s degree and join the commercial working world. Working alongside a variety of students, however, was a valuable experience to learn about different types of research and cutting-edge science and technology. Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women in engineering and automation? My department is inclusive of women and I and my female colleagues are treated as equals with our male colleagues. Our input is considered and valued, and there is a definite sense of teamwork among the entire engineering group. Right now, my job is focused on customers’ applications, helping companies find the right encoder for their unique applications where a standard off-the-shelf encoder doesn’t work for them. Describe your biggest engineering challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome? My biggest career challenge is helping customers who need custom solutions. There are so many different considerations when designing industrial automation applications, often the customers aren’t sure exactly what they’re looking for in a motion feedback device. I have to pull back from an encoder view of the application to get an eagle-eye view. For instance, if a customer tells me, “We need labels applied to bottles,” I need to understand when in the process those labels are applied, and I need the specs on the application--how fast the conveyor belt is moving, how large the bottles are, what the speed of the application is, will the encoder be subject to washdown, extreme environments, etc., to determine what the best encoder solution is. It’s incredibly satisfying to get the “weird calls” and find those customers the encoder that is going to provide reliable motion feedback, day in, day out. That’s why I enjoy my job so much--I get to help fellow engineers solve problems. For the rest of Sarah Walter’s insights, visit www.designworldonline.com/WiE.
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DESIGN WORLD
10/14/21 2:26 PM
